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A bit of a tall order I know, but any help would be appreciated...

Basically, I want to attempt my first 'proper' DBPro game - a clone of Total Annihilation, one of my all-time favourite games.

I'm using Truespace to make the models before I start any coding and I've realised that I might be creating them all wrong if I need to animate them. So, anyone with experience with TS or Gamespace might hopefully be able to steer me in the right direction.

Here's some of the models I've done so far:



And my first thoughts of a Bot Factory with a basic tank...



To be honest I'm not well up on the terminology for models in DBPro - ie what a 'limb' in DB is in relation to the model when in Truespace.

For example, in TS if I create a cube then create another one a little smaller and sit it on top of the first I can save both as a single .X file. But when it's loaded into DBPro, the model has no limb for rotating (assuming I wanted to rotate the smaller cube independently).

In TS you also have the ability to 'glue' the second cube in place as a child and save the object. Once again, if I do this, the second cube still doesn't appear as a limb in DB.

The reason I ask is that in the first image above, in the top right corner is a Wind Power Generator and the propeller needs to rotate according to the wind speed and the section it attaches to needs to rotate around the Y axis depending on the wind direction.

So, the base and centre vertical support is one object, the brown propeller shaft is a second object and the propeller itself is a third object.

Would these animations have to be controlled individually by DBPro using Rotate Limb or would they be animations created in TS and saved as part of the .X model?

My guess was that if the whole model is a single entity then there would be no limbs to rotate in DBP - hence my reasoning in creating the Wind Generator model from three parts.

But I don't think I really know what I'm talking about!

That's why I need some kind person to answer my many stupid questions and help me understand all of this (via email rather than on here preferably).

I've searched the net and looked at tutorials, but they either don't use TS or don't cover using the resulting models in DBP.

If anyone fancies the challenge and uses the email link below, please note that my email address has changed and you need to add the number 2 after tdk_man to make it tdk_man2. If you don't, you'll get an auto-responder message informing you of the change.

Thanks in advance...

TDK_Man

Hi TDK,
Which version of TrueSpace are you using?
Normally glueing one object to another creates a Heirarchy therefore DBP should find the limbs,when saving are you saving in ascii text or binary?

I have sent you an email.

Ah; good, I see JimB has found you.

Alternatively if the only issue is the speed of rotation, you could animate it to spin at 360 degrees every say 10 seconds, then do the math to figure out what play speed you need to set it at to correspond with the wind.

TDK - Have you seen Supreme commander? - Its a clone of TA. although I have to say its not a very good one (made by the same guy aswell). and I think its just gone budget.

BTW. Very nice models you have going on there ..

That's not the problem. What's happening is that Truespace exported .X files loaded into DB or DBPro don't appear to have any limbs, so there's nothing to rotate.

I've created two objects in TS and saved them as a single .X file both glued and unglued without luck. I'm assuming it's the same with Gamespace though I've not tried it.



Yes - I still prefer TA though as well.

TDK_Man

Actualy its the prolouge(or epilouge) to TA.
Its one of them two.

Also Brilliant models TDK, Keep it up.

I have no problem seeing a heirarchy with my truespace models. When you export the model make sure you check the ascii box as JimB mentioned.

Also open up the scene editor to see how the objects are glued together. This is really a tricky part in truespace. Try gluing the objects together in different sequences to see how they effect each other.

Actually, thanks to JimB's help it's now been confirmed that the problem has been me all of the time!

When you save a .X file in TS there's a few settings which I'd forgotten all about - one of which tells TS to save all parts of the model as a single mesh. This was checked and I didn't realise.

It was only when I sent him a model with two separate objects glued together and he replied telling me I shouldn't use Object Union that it twigged as to what I was doing wrong.

With the option turned off, glued objects are now appearing in DBPro with limbs!

It also works whether I save the .X file as binary or ASCII - it doesn't appear to matter...

So, half of my problems are solved. The other half is creating a few of the bots for the game and trying to animate them.

I'm assuming that this is going to be a little more problematic as I believe that TS bone animations aren't compatible with DBPro. Can anyone confirm this?

TDK_Man

They seem to work try the attached

Its just 2 cylinders 2 bones badly put together an badly animated but if you see it move back and forth you're set.